$7000 paint job

I messed with these cars for 30+ years before I made any attempt at body and paint work. Up until now it was whatever the car was already wearing, or black primer. So, I finally decided to jump in and learn the skills.
Here's the results. Three cars done so far...three cars needing to be completely redone.
Total disaster? No! Hundreds of hours and thousands in material wasted? NO! I'm learning the skills by trial and error. I see the mistakes I made on each car once it is completed and work on correcting those on my next. And yes, each one is getting just a little bit better. When I do the next, I can pretty confidently say the job will be presentable and take less time than any of the previous ones.
I'm not doing any of these cars to sell...they're all permanent members of my fleet. I'm actually looking forward to redoing them! The plan is to work my way through, get all nine of them in color, and then go back to where I started and do it again. By that point, I'm sure I'll be capable of show quality work.
Do I have three cars with terrible paint jobs? Yes. Have I learned a thousand things and expanded my knowledge and skills enormously? Absolutely! And that's what this hobby is really all about.